Kotwica
The Kotwica (German anchor ) was the symbol of the Polish resistance movement during the German occupation of Poland in World War II , especially the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ). The Kotwica represents the letters P and W and is an abbreviation for Polska Walcząca ("Fighting Poland").
It was designed in 1942 by a sabotage unit in the Warsaw district of Wawer and originally meant Pomścimy Wawer ("We will take revenge for Wawer"). What was meant here was the Wawer massacre , one of the first massacres of the German occupation forces of the Polish civilian population in the Warsaw district of the same name.
It was seen in public for the first time on March 20th of that year, when young scouts painted it as graffiti on hundreds of Warsaw buildings. The Kotwica found nationwide distribution after the Home Army stamped five hundred copies of the Nowy Kurier Warszawski newspaper with the symbol on June 27th in protest against the pro-German propaganda controlled by the occupying forces. With this action the name day of the president of the Polish government in exile Władysław Raczkiewicz and his namesake and prime minister Władysław Sikorski was celebrated. The next year the campaign was repeated, this time even up to 7000 issues were branded in this way.
On February 18, 1943, Stefan Rowecki , the commander of the Home Army, ordered that in future all sabotage actions of the Polish resistance should be "signed" with the Kotwica. The official bulletin of the Home Army, the Biuletyn Informacyjny , announced in its February 25th edition the decision to make the Kotwica the symbol of the Polish underground army, and so it soon found national recognition and popularity. In the further course of the war they also used other resistance organizations, even those that operated in competition with the Home Army. It was painted on house walls in the cities of the country, stamped on German banknotes, and emblazoned on leaflets and magazines from the underground. In 1944 it became one of the central symbols of the Warsaw Uprising .
After the Second World War, the Kotwica was banned by the communist government of Poland, but was still used by the various successor organizations of the Home Army, which operated from abroad against the new Polish leadership. From 1976 the opposition "Movement for the Defense of Human and Civil Rights" (ROPCiO) claimed the Kotwica as one of its symbols, later also other opposition groups of various stripes, from the right-wing extremist Konfederacja Polski Niepodległej (KPN) under Leszek Moczulski to Lech Wałęsas Solidarność .
gallery
Unofficial flag of Armia Krajowa and the Polish Underground State
The Kotwica as a monument on the top of the hill of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw
Kotwica on a memorial for fallen soldiers of the Kampinos group of the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ) in Budy Zosiny in the powiat Grodziski
Flag of Poland with the Kotwica in Gdynia
Web links
- "Kotwica" Walcząca History of the Kotwica (Polish)